S2 E35 When the Lender Lets Everyone Down | Language Barriers, First-Time Buyers & Why Lender Choice Matters

What happens when your buyer does not speak English fluently, has never purchased a home in America, and is working with a lender who takes their sweet time? In this episode of Closing Chapters, Brittney walks through a 2019 transaction that tested every layer of her patience, communication skills, and professional boundaries.

Her client was an international buyer purchasing his first home in Sumter, South Carolina. There were genuine language barriers, a significant gap between what the lender told him he could borrow and what he thought his monthly payment would be, and expectations that did not survive contact with the reality of an as-is sale. The property was a solid brick ranch at $140,000 in a great pocket of town, but the seller was not budging on anything, and the buyer had to learn that the hard way.

Brittney also opens up about the invisible barriers that made this deal complicated beyond language: cultural dynamics that affected how her client received her guidance, the challenge of working with a slow lender, and the reality that she passed the transaction off mid-stream to a trusted colleague after getting it under contract. This episode is honest, layered, and full of lessons for agents and buyers alike.

Key Takeaways

• Lender choice is one of the most important decisions a buyer makes before starting their home search.
• Getting approved for a loan amount is not the same as knowing what your monthly payment will be. Buyers need lenders who explain the difference clearly.
• As-is properties require crystal-clear communication upfront. If a buyer agrees to as-is terms, that commitment has to hold after the inspection too.
• Language barriers require extra care and more documentation, not shortcuts.
• Cultural dynamics can affect how clients receive guidance. Navigating that with professionalism and empathy is part of the job.
• Referring a transaction mid-stream to a trusted colleague is sometimes the best move for everyone.
• Good lenders communicate with agents too, not just buyers. That transparency is a non-negotiable.
• A low-priced as-is home in a great location still carries real value. Helping buyers see that is part of the work.

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© 2025 Brittney Frye. All rights reserved. Realtor, license # 352197 in NC. Brokerage: REAL Broker l Military Division

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey my friend! Welcome back to the closing chapters podcast where every mission has a story. I don't want to say confused. This gentleman was not from America and was having the opportunity to purchase his first home here in America. So there was a little bit of a language barrier for sure. And on top of that, just the understanding or expectations of the process. And of course, when you have a lender saying, Well, you can do this, like you can do this, this, and this. And then the reality is no, no, no, you can't. Um, like you can spend X amount of money. I can give you a loan for that. But then the guy tells me, like, no, I only want to spend, like, I don't, I can't have a payment more than like, you know, a thousand dollars a month. Hello, hello, my friends. Today's episode is all about this is what happens when we use lenders that don't care about deadlines. Not to say that they don't all, um, but there are a few lenders that tend to have a reputation of I'll get to it when I get to it, and it's just gonna sit on my desk until then. And in this scenario for this transaction, my client was absolutely working with one of those lenders. And it's probably not one of the most immediate ones that you would expect. Um but yeah, that's all I'm gonna say about that. Anyhow, so we were working with a lender that I knew was not going to be a quick, savvy situation. I'm working with a buyer that is very um, I don't want to say confused. This gentleman was not from America and was having the opportunity to purchase his first home here in America. So there was a little bit of a language barrier for sure. And on top of that, just the understanding or expectations of the process. And of course, when you have a lender saying, Well, you can do this, like you can do this, this, and this. And then the reality is, no, no, no, you can't. Um, like you can spend X amount of money. I can give you a loan for that. But then the guy tells me, like, no, I only want to spend, like, I don't, I can't have a payment more than like, you know, a thousand dollars a month or something. I mean, it was very, very, very low. And I was like, friend, that doesn't match. And he was like, no, no, the the bank said I could get a loan for this. And I'm like, that yes, you may be able to get a loan for that, but that doesn't mean your payment's gonna be this. Um, so we kind of, it was a little bit interesting to say the least. And this is where I try to impress upon buyers so much to have a lender that you trust wholeheartedly and that will communicate with you. I will tell you my lenders that I choose to use or try to utilize in my business, uh, that is their biggest superpower, is that they are very transparent and they will communicate all options with you and they will tell you what's going on every step of the way. That is a non-negotiable in my business. It just is. Now, I have different lenders with different personality types, and that might convey differently with the communication, which is great too. I have like my mama bear, I have my business, you know, person that's just about the numbers. And then I've got my like investor savvy, you know, guy. And then I have my true military veteran lenders. I've got a few of them. So, um, and I like it that way. Like I like having that spread so that I have something to offer to everyone, and I can play matchmaker a little bit, you know, like it's always up to us to like give opportunities, give resources. But sometimes I will kind of label them as like, hey, this is this personality, this is this personality, so that they can match with whom they feel would be most appropriate for their scenario. And I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish I would have had that opportunity with this client. But alas, here we are. We are in Sumter, South Carolina, looking for a house, and we ended up finding one in a price point of $140,000. Now, this was a solid house. It was a nice brick rancher and had good bones. Was it updated? No. Was it an as-is sale? Yes. Was the seller going to do anything to help this buyer out? No. And that also became one of our concerns, right? Is this gentleman, once again, didn't have a great understanding of the process or what expectations were. So when I tell him, like, hey, we can look at this house, but like you have to accept it in its current condition. The the seller will do nothing to it. Like, it's it's you either take it or you don't. And it seemed like we understood that. And then once we got under contract, he wanted things to be different and wanted things to be fixed. And I'm like, that doesn't, that doesn't work that way. Like he wanted a carpet allowance and different things like that. And I'm like, no, we talked about this going in the door. That this is on you. They have it priced this way for a reason. And when I say that, this property is located in like the sweet spot of town. There's an area called Loring Mill Road, and that like it's off of that, off of Keels Road. And this is like a really nice little nook of town. And this is an older house, it's a smaller house, but the location is king, right? So the value is there 100%. They have a price extremely low to go ahead and move it and absolutely at and as is price point. So the bigger thing was that we talked about was like, listen, as long as you can get a loan for this property, the seller has no obligation to do anything for you. And they've made that extremely clear. And there was nothing going on with this house, it was all very cosmetic items. Um, I think there was something going on with the garage door, if I remember correctly, that it had like a little dent or wasn't working properly. And then the carpet, and it was just dark and drabby, like it needed to be brightened up. But the carpet was kind of the biggest thing is the flooring altogether really needed to be fixed. And that was my only question mark was like, hey, you know, with the appraiser, we gotta make sure that they will accept it with the current like flooring condition because some of it was torn up a little bit or missing in certain places. And a lot of times that's not gonna fly. Now ultimately it did, and we got to the closing table. Thank goodness. And I'm so thankful that um I stuck it through. You know, sometimes it gets pretty, pretty like heavy or discouraging when you just are not able to um get through to your client. And some of that might have been a language barrier, but some of it I think was a little bit like um societal, if that makes sense. Like, I don't know that um it was where he is from. I don't know that it was that necessarily normal that you would respect a woman and trust what they're saying to you, and basically you say something and it's just supposed to happen, if that makes sense. So I think that there was definitely some like barriers there. So it's really interesting when you get in those situations of like, how do we navigate this in a healthy manner for forward, right? How do I navigate this where like I'm doing my best and honoring my client and taking care of them and yet holding a standard and letting them know, like, no, this is what you've agreed to. This is absolutely reasonable or unreasonable, and we need to be able to move forward with whatever the expectation is. So, and yet again, I this is one of the ones that um I got them under contract and had to pass them off. So I actually did a lot of the hard work and gave away a good bit of my commission because after it was under contract, um, one of my darling friends in my office took it over from there. So uh yeah, I it was definitely a dual effort and something that we had to combine and work together with and really stay on top of the lender. When I mean, like, was the appraisal ordered? Where's the appraisal at? Has it gone to underwriting? What are we doing? Have you told the buyer to order homeowners insurance? Do they even know how to order homeowners insurance? I mean, like it was really pulling teeth. So this is just once again, if I could impress anything upon you, picking your lender wisely is more important than you realize. Now, a lot of times once you get through the loan process, it's very common that there's certain companies that sell off their loans in the process with somebody else. Like they are, you know, like from the time that you start making payments on, it's gonna be somebody else that's taking the payments. Okay, so be it, right? It's really nice when someone keeps it in-house and like everything stays with what you're comfortable, who you're comfortable with, and you can always call someone at a dime. Um, however, like getting through the actual process, that is what I'm talking about. Like having someone to call and explain the numbers to you, having someone to say, hey, this is the process and this is what's gonna happen next. This is the timeline that associates with this process, and really lay it out so that we are absolutely 100% on the same page. That is so important and critical for all parties involved. And also, um, just a sidebar that it's also very important to have a lender that is going to communicate with the agents. And I said agents, right? Not just the buyer's agent, but the seller agent too. They should be able to communicate with the lender and get general updates and know where we are in the process on a loan. Now, if a listing agent calls the lender, the the lender is certainly not going to tell the listing agent the buyer's personal information. However, they can say that they are qualified for X, Y, and Z, that we are through underwriting or the appraisal has been ordered, the appraisal has arrived, but is in review, like all of those sorts of things, the milestones, they absolutely can express and share and keep everybody abreast. And even when it's with like the buyer's agent, the lender is not necessarily going to give the buyer's agent personal details unless the buyer approves that and says, sure, like buy be my guest, like open book, tell the buyer agent anything because I need everybody to help me and be on the same page. And most of the time, most of my clients, that's where we sit. Like there's absolutely full transparency and um more team, like the lender, my client, and I, we are working together every step of the way. And there's no barriers there, which is beautiful because then I can be strategic more for my client and not just rely on the telephone, right? And what I mean by the telephone is like I mean the messaging, right? The lender told me this, so I think I can do that, but I don't really know. That's just what he said. Does that sound familiar, Lynn? Um, Realtors? Have you ever had that message? And you're like, okay, but I really need you to know, like, I really need to know from the lender, can you do this? How much in closing costs do you have to have if we are at this price point? Will you be able to because like we are just taking somebody's word for some of this stuff and they're not 100% confident or sure? And that's a sticky situation to be in because we are the one negotiating these terms with our client and hoping that we're going to make sure that we have a successful transaction. And we don't want to overpromise something that we can't deliver either, right? So it's very important across the board for all parties to be communicating and helping one another. Uh yeah, so that is what we did to get us to September 20th, 2019. Believe it or not, my transactions are about to end, are about to end for 2019. We have a couple more and then we're we're done. And you might go, Brittany, what in the world? Well, just a reminder that I left South Carolina June 15th, no, July 15th, excuse me, 2019. And we made a cross-country trip to South Dakota, and we knew that we may not be there for very long, and we weren't. Two weeks into being in South Dakota, my husband received word that he was going to be transferring from the Air Force to the Army to become a warrant officer. So we only spent five months there. So that means by December we were back in the car doing another cross-country trip. So I was not um pulling my license to a different state that we were not going to stay in. And we ended up coming back to South Carolina for a short amount of time while my husband went to basic training. I had our first baby and he was off to some of his other trainings afterwards, and then we scooped him up and went to Missouri. So um, yeah, this is like where my life starts to get really interesting. I am currently pregnant with my first baby during this time frame. We have made a cross-country move, and honestly, this was a really joyful time in my life where I just got to exist. I mean, I was still taking care of my transactions in the background, right? But I had somebody in place and helping me finish them up. And I was going to yoga and eating frosties and walking the dogs every night and enjoying time with my husband, who I had missed dearly because he had been in Korea the whole year before. He came home in June. Um, and then we left in July to go to South Dakota. So, anyhow, this is a really like interesting and cool phase of my life, but we start to like get these odd gaps in my business. So it'll be really interesting to see how it conveys and how I can tell you the experiences and how they changed for me as I transitioned in my personal life and had to adjust in my business life. So hang tight, it's about to start getting interesting, my friends. We have a couple more transactions for 2019. Hey! I just wanted to say thank you for being here and listening in on this episode of Closing Chapters with me. I truly enjoy putting this content together, and I hope that you enjoy it too. If so, could you like, subscribe, and share this episode with somebody you know that will enjoy it just as much as you did? Thank you so much.